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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23278639">Partying for Slayers</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/calenlily/pseuds/calenlily'>calenlily</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Developing trust and understanding, F/F, Graveyard Makeouts, Killing things therapy, Post-Episode: s03e05 Homecoming</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:28:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,282</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23278639</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/calenlily/pseuds/calenlily</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Watching as Holly and Michelle are crowned joint Homecoming Queens, Buffy feels like all the air has been knocked out of her. She falls back to where her friends are clustered together on the crowded dance floor, but none of their hearts seem to be at the celebration either, and within five minutes she’s feeling more than ever like this whole dance was a mistake.</p>
<p>“Wanna blow this joint?” Faith suggests.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Faith Lehane/Buffy Summers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>77</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>All The Nice Things Flash Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Partying for Slayers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melacka/gifts">Melacka</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Watching as Holly and Michelle are crowned joint Homecoming Queens, Buffy feels like all the air has been knocked out of her. She falls back to where her friends are clustered together on the crowded dance floor, but none of their hearts seem to be at the celebration either, and within five minutes she’s feeling more than ever like this whole dance was a mistake.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Wanna blow this joint?” Faith suggests.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>After the ordeal she’s had this evening, Buffy ought to want a break, but the wreckage that’s become of her hopes for one good high school moment is making finding something to stake sound really appealing right now. “What the hell?” she shrugs, and follows her sister slayer out into the night.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“You look good,” she says when she gets a good look at the brunette under the lights of the parking lot. Faith cleans up surprisingly well, with her hair swept up, a black choker, and figure-hugging near-black dress with a deep v-neck.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“You too.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Buffy looks incredulously down at her bleeding arm and torn, muddied dress, then back to Faith. She doesn’t need a mirror to know her hair and makeup are beyond repair. “You’re a terrible liar.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Her sister slayer smirks. “Nah, disheveled’s a good look on you, B,” she says lightly.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Buffy’s never sure how to react when Faith makes comments like that - or gives her looks like that, for that matter - so she brushes past it and turns her eyes to her path as they keep walking. “Anyway, sorry I was a lousy date. I hope you at least had a good time while I was held up, maybe found a few studs to use?”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Faith snorts. “Not particularly, but I mighta given Hope and his cheap date some second thoughts about their choices. I think your evening was more my kinda party.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Buffy sighs. “I just wish it wasn’t the only kind of party I ever get to have anymore.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“How’re you holding up?” Faith asks with what sounds like genuine concern, and Buffy stops in her tracks as they reach the border of Sunny Rest. She’s not used to that kind of seriousness or care from the other girl.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“I got hunted. With </span>
  <em>
    <span>Cordelia</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” she says bitterly. “My friends don’t trust me, and the rest of the school thinks I’m a loser, if they even know who I am. But hey, I didn’t have to burn down any buildings, so I guess it still beats the last school dance I went to.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Faith raises an eyebrow. “You burned down a building?”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Buffy shrugs. “Yeah, the gym was overrun with vamps. That’s how I got kicked out of my school in LA.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Damn, B, you been holding out on me! I never heard that story before,” Faith leans back against the side of a mausoleum, a curious glint in her eye. “Aren’t you supposed to be Miss Goody-Two-Shoes?”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Kicked out of school twice, kicked out of my house once, left town under suspicion for murder, and you’ve already heard about my dating history,” Buffy recites dryly. “Not sure where you got the Goody-Two-Shoes vibe.” She sighs. “Don’t mind me, I’m Cynical Cindy tonight.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>The younger slayer shrugs, unbothered. “I figured that’s why we’re finding you something to kill. You clearly need to relieve some tension.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Buffy smiles despite herself, gratified by Faith’s easy acceptance. “I do at that.” It’s nice to have the company of someone who understands the darkness inside her, the predator that sings in her blood. (Someone who understands who isn’t completely and utterly forbidden, and she is not even going to let her mind go </span>
  <em>
    <span>there</span>
  </em>
  <span>.) Willow and Xander would be horrified if she tried to tell them how she needs the hunt, and while Giles might know intellectually he doesn’t really get it.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Of course, I’d be happy to offer you another outlet, but -” Faith swivels around suddenly, “I think you just got your wish.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Buffy catches the sound of a growl from across the graveyard a moment after her sister slayer and turns to follow her gaze.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>It’s Lyle Gorch again. The redneck vamp looks equal parts nervous and enraged when he catches sight of her, and that suits Buffy just fine. She takes a running start and flips over a headstone to land on her feet in front of him, aware of Faith a few paces behind her.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“You’re like a bad penny, you just keep turning up,” she quips.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>The vampire snarls. “Slayer! You killed my brother! You killed my wife!  I’m gonna-”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Follow them to a dusty demise?” Buffy suggests brightly.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>She lets him rush her and sticks out her arm to neatly clothesline the furious vamp, then unleashes a flurry of blows and kicks, forcing him back as he tries to recover his footing.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>She continues to pummel Gorch, giving her aggression free rein. The vamp gets in a lucky kick that sends her flying back against a nearby mausoleum, but while she’s getting to her feet he’s knocked to the ground by the brunette behind him.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Who’re you?” Gorch growls, taken by surprise.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Buffy shakes off the impact and grabs up a fallen branch before she springs forward to rejoin the fight. She ignores the question to instead address her fellow slayer. “It’s nice to have someone at my back who I can rely on to actually have my back.” Her night would have sucked so much less if it had been Faith with her from the start. She missed fighting alongside someone whose strength she can trust.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“No prob, B.” Faith falls back, letting Buffy engage the increasingly desperate vampire, and Buffy recognizes that that deference is a courtesy.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>She drives Gorch back again, and as he stumbles over the corner of a low headstone she shoves the branch up through his ribs.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>He falls backward, turning to dust before he hits the ground. Buffy’s forward momentum continues; she stumbles forward a step, failing to catch herself properly, and crashes into Faith. The two girls tumble to the grass together.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Buffy has just a moment to take in her sister slayer’s flushed face and the heat in her eyes before Faith pulls her head down and kisses her hard. She returns the kiss without thinking, parting her lips and letting her hands pull the other girl closer, surrendering to temptation and the adrenaline heating her blood. She can feel Faith’s heart beating as fast as her own, knows the same wild predatory desire is singing through her veins. Faith’s body is slim and curvy and hot beneath her, and it’s different but it doesn’t feel wrong.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>When she breaks away, she wonders what she’s doing. This isn’t remotely responsible.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Don’t tell me all you crave is a non-fat yogurt,” Faith smirks, challenging and flirtatious.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Buffy thinks of Faith’s words before the fight, </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’d be happy to offer you another outlet</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Thinks of all the innuendos that she’s never known how to respond to, but can’t help being affected by. Thinks of the fact that, of everyone in her life, Faith just might be able to understand what it is to be her.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>She wants that understanding. She wants release. She doesn’t want to be responsible.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>She takes a steadying breath. “If we do this, you have to understand. I’m not remotely together right now. I know I’m rebounding, and there are ... there are some things I’m not ready to tell anyone. But I - I think I want....”</span>
  <span></span>
    <br/>
  
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Faith seems to see the conclusion in her eyes; she cuts Buffy off before she can ramble any further. “You think too much, B. Things don’t always have to be complicated.” And she kisses her again.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26726422">Midnight Donuts</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/calenlily/pseuds/calenlily">calenlily</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div></div></div>
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